Trade between South American nations and bilateral development are set to top talks Tuesday between Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
The leaders, to meet in Brazil's northeastern city of Salvador de Bahia, represent Latin America's biggest oil exporter and the region's biggest economy.
Chavez's bid to see his country join the Mercosur trade bloc was expected to be one of the key issues on the table, but the leftist president made no specific mention of it on Monday.
"We have decided to speed up all cooperation agreements between Brazil and Venezuela," Chavez told official television station VTV, emphasizing an agreement with Federal Caixa, Brazil's main state-owned bank.
"We want to help Lula's experiment in building housing in the slums of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, and with creating a savings system."
Chavez added that the pair would sign a document Tuesday to create a public banking network and housing programs, as well as agreements on agriculture and food production.
Brazil's senate is poised to vote on ratifying full Mercosur membership to Venezuela, though debate has been peppered with criticism from a few senators that Chavez is too authoritarian to be accepted.
Venezuela applied for membership to the bloc in 2006, and its accession has already been approved by Argentina and Uruguay. In late April, Chavez said he hoped Venezuela would become a member before Tuesday's meeting.
Lula and Chavez are also expected to discuss a 10-billion-dollar credit line Venezuela has requested from Brazil's BNDES development bank, diplomatic sources in Caracas said.
Chavez last week received the president of BNDES, Luciano Coutinho, to flesh out the request.
Bilateral trade between Venezuela and Brazil amounted to 5.7 billion dollars last year, heavily weighted in favor of Brazilian imports, according to the Federation of Brazil-Venezuela Chambers of Commerce.
The presidents have been holding regular meetings since 2007 to find ways to boost cooperation between their countries.
Story from AFP
AFP 05/26/2009 09:19
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